Historic hotel on the mend

Officials with the Settles Hotel Development Company say they have a tight schedule ahead of them, but still expect to have the renovation of the historic Settles Hotel completed by the end of 2011.

Kris Ryan, SHDC manager, said the project has faced some hurdles recently — including freezing weather — but is making a great deal of progress.

“The freezing weather has forced us to bring a number of the large, fueled heaters in to keep the change in temperatures from cracking our plaster,” Ryan said. “When you're working with these kinds of materials, a 10-degree change from day time to night time isn't a problem. However, when the temperatures drop as much as they have lately, it can really cause those walls to move and crack.

“Every night, before I leave the work site, I have to go through the hotel and make sure all of the heaters have fuel. Even with them, however, it only gets up to about 40 degrees inside the structure. So the cold weather certainly has changed the way we're handling things, but we're still making a great deal of progress.”

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